Snuggles and Cuddles and one funny, smart big boy!

Last weekend we sent Garrett to Pops and Grandmommy's house for a sleepover.  When we went to pick him up the next day my mom said "I was freaked out when I saw that you didn't pack a pull-up."  I was confused and then realized we forgot to pack one!  Oops!  Well they put G in his big boy underwear and he rocked it!  He was dry throughout the night! I was so excited for him!  This is about his last "big" milestone of being a big boy!  We have just been lazy about putting him in underwear at bedtime because we didn't have a mattress cover and just haven't taken the time to buy one.  We actually used one of Sandy's puppy pads.  We decided that we weren't going back to pull-ups since he had proved that he could go without!  That was last Saturday night and so far (knock on wood) we are accident free!  SO very exciting!
Garrett has been obsessed with puzzles lately.  It is so fun to watch him put them together.  He really does an amazing job and can do some big puzzles.  I love watching him learn things.  He catches on so quickly.  We need to go out and buy him some more big boy puzzles.
Garrett also has become so snugly lately.  I don't know where the change happened but he loves to crawl up in our laps and just snuggle and cuddle.  It may only last for a minute and a half, but it's the best minute ever.  He also is giving tons of hugs and kisses!  This is so awesome because he used to not hug and kiss much at all.  I am enjoying him making up for lost time!  On Friday morning he came and got in our bed after he woke up laid with me and just snuggled for about 15-20 minutes.  We laid in silence.  It was awesome.  He talks non stop, so I enjoyed some peace and quiet and snuggles!
We've also noticed that when he's eating he likes to give out hugs and kisses too.  I tell Josh that he loves food like I do and that food makes him happy like it makes his mama happy!  Ha!
So far every year keeps getting better and better with him.  Some say that age three is worse than age 2.  Really two wasn't bad and three has been fun so far.  Don't get me wrong, he has his moments and frustrates us.  But overall he is just a kindhearted little guy.
This week he was watching Peter Pan and apparently Captain Hook took Peter Pan's shadow.  He was telling Josh and I about this.  The next day on the way to school I asked G if he wanted to see his shadow when we got to school.  He busted out laughing and said "MOMMY use just kiddin'".  I said no buddy you have a shadow.  He then again kept telling me over and over again that I was kidding with him.  He thought I was a comedian or something because he was rolling in his car seat laughing so hard.  I couldn't help but laugh because he was so tickled.  Well then since I was laughing he really did thing I was kidding.  What a mess he is.  When we got out I showed him our shadows and now he is obsessed with shadows!
He is also enjoying going to basketball and baseball games for ECU.  The last ECU weekend game is tonight so we will go to that.  There is also a baseball tournament that if the wind slows down we will attempt to go to.   Fun times!

Valentine's Day and some date nights

Josh and I are VERY lucky to have 2 sets of wonderful grandparents that live in town.  We need to take advantage more of some date nights with them :-)
Two weekends ago SuSu (Josh's mom) was able to take care of Garrett.  We dropped him off and had an afternoon and date night together.  It was MUCH needed and so awesome.  We went and saw The Vow.  It was a good romantic movie.  After the movie we went to a new restaurant for us, but has been in Greenville for awhile.  It is called Wasabi 88 and is very popular for sushi.  Josh and I don't do sushi, but their Hibachi was AWESOME and so was their spicy chicken.  Oh my I wish I could be eating it right now.  Here is their website and if you are in Greenville it is a must to check out.  http://wasabi88.com/ They are only open for dinner though!  We slept in and went to church.  It was such an amazing service and I was so glad that Josh got me to go.  I wanted to be selfish and stay at home.  Ahhh so glad that I went.
Valentine's Day was on a Tuesday night.  Some friends of ours had told us about a Murder Mystery going on at ECU.  It is open to faculty, staff and students.  Dinner was included and we decided that it would be fun to do something new.  We met with our friends Olivia and Joe and tried to solve the crime!  It ended up being a double murder and we figured out one of the murderers, but not both.  It was honestly a fun night and was neat going on a "double date".  Here are a few pictures before we left.  One is of G the next morning.  He made a bow tie at school and was so proud and I just thought he was precious :-)

Garrett wanted to get in on the picture

Valentine's Day 2012

Given best smile by his teacher and his bow tie that he made :-)

OMG I could just squeeze him...ha!!

It was a great day!
Last weekend we let Garrett stay with my parents.  Before we took him over to my parents we went to Krispy Kreme for breakfast.  This was so much fun.  He loves doughnuts as much as his mama.  We let him wear his pajama's.  After breakfast we went to ECU's campus and ran around with G.  He loved it and we did too. This time we did a lot of independent things.  I went grocery shopping and shoe shopping...ha!  It was great.  I also went out for a run.  Was trying to get 3-6 miles in and only got 1.7 miles.  Very disappointing, but it was OK.  I listened to my body and hope to be able to get in a 10.5 mile this weekend.  We got yogurt and had Italian for dinner.  It was OK, but the service was awful.  Just so you know if you eat with us you will probably get bad service.  Josh and I tend to get bad service most of the places we go.  Not sure why?!  We came home and ate in front of the TV and watched the movie Courageous.  It is a must see and very thought provoking. I truly enjoyed it and would recommend it!  Sunday when we got Garrett it was FREEZING and cold!  So we all put our pajama's on and had an indoor movie afternoon.  G sat still the entire time and it was quite nice.

Time to plan some more date nights ;-)

Winter is here...burrrrrr

It has been very cold here these past few weeks.  I'm not a huge fan of cold weather, but strangely prefer to run when it is cooler out.  Now by cooler I mean it needs to be in the 40's!  Needless to say my running this past week has been HARD and not as consistent.  I did however have an incredible run with my girls last Saturday.  We set out for a 7 mile run and we ended up doing 9!!!!!  I was so excited.  I haven't been able to run like that ever!  Traci and I ran a 10 mile race in December.  Before that, 8 miles was the longest I was able to do.  This was a HUGE accomplishment!  I missed this weeks long run with the girls so had to do it on my own.  I ended up running 10 miles!  My knees hurt bad after, but today has felt better.
We have been going to a lot of basketball games recently.  Garrett LOVES them and does so awesome during them.  He didn't do so great during football.  The games were too long and HOT.  So this has been really nice.  Baseball season is right around the corner and we will be trying out baseball games next!
Last weekend Garrett and I went out and fed the ducks at the Hospital.  The ducks are not scared of people and will come right up to you and take the bread.  Garrett talks to the ducks the entire time and just laughs!  I love it.  This time however there were seagulls out there.  I truly dislike seagulls.  They were all in our faces begging for bread and stealing them from the little ducks.  We had to stand on a bench because the ducks were crowding us.  Here are some pictures from our little adventure:

Look how close they get!

My guy with all the ducks following him for some food!

I had to put him up on a bench because they were crowding him ;-)

Following the ducks around.  They actually didn't run away, just waddled on.

Then there were a few chases :-)

Garrett has also been SO FUNNY lately!  OMG he kills me.  Tonight at the grocery store he was talking to the cashier and I couldn't hear what he was saying.  All I heard was the cashier say "You are three.  Oh I'm 21"  With a big grin.  I couldn't tell who was more proud to tell their age!

He also tells me that I'm his favorite girlfriend and that I'm beautiful.  Melts my heart!  He is just a doll!

January wrap up

I saw someone else do a blog on their month and thought it was a good idea to try and remember what was going on.  We will see how it goes.  January ended up being a VERY busy month for us but we had a BLAST.  We had Garrett's birthday party and then 4 of his buddies had birthday parties too.  It was a lot of fun.  We had Garrett's at ViQuest in their indoor pool.  So much fun.  The other parties were held at Jump Fit and a gymnastics place.  We love Jump Fit.  They have one huge bouncy castle and then a huge indoor playground set.  We also found out you can pay to go for an hour if you want to.  We will probably do this at some point because it got TONS of energy out!  Gymnastics was fun too!  They had a huge pit of foam to jump in.  Garrett loved it!!!
I've gotten back into running.  I never got "out" of it completely, but slowed down a lot.  SO once December was over and I had gained 8lbs (urgh, but totally fun doing it) I knew that it was time to jump back in!  I got a running watch for Christmas and it is just awesome.  We don't have to stick to a certain path anymore, we can run wherever we want to go!  I also decided to run a 1/2 Marathon.  CRAZY!!!  I was going to do my first in October, but a good friend convinced me to do one in March.  I didn't think I could do it, but feel better about it now (ran 9 miles today).  My friend Richard is also nice enough to run with me.  He is faster than I am and is willing to sacrifice his time to help me out.  I'm so excited about it.  Nervous too.  Will keep you updated as we go along.
Luckily January was very mild.  We had some days that were upper 60's lower 70's.  It was very nice! 
Overall it was a great January.